The trade predates Islam. By the 4th century, Berber and Tuareg caravans were crossing the Sahara on routes that connected the gold fields of West Africa to the Mediterranean ports of North Africa. The introduction of the camel — probably from Arabia via Egypt in the first centuries CE — made sustained desert crossing possible. Before the camel, trade crossed the Sahara in stages, like a sentence broken into clauses. After the camel, it crossed in single expeditions. The animal changed everything.
Gold moved north. The Bambuk and Bure goldfields in modern Senegal and Guinea produced the gold that fuelled Mediterranean economies. The Almoravid dynasty was built on Saharan trade. The Saadians conquered Timbuktu in 1591 partly to control the gold supply directly. Moroccan dinars were minted from West African gold, which means that the coins circulating in Fes and Marrakech contained metal that had been dug from the earth three thousand kilometres to the south and carried across the emptiest landscape on the planet by people who knew the route the way you know your street.
Salt moved south. The Saharan salt mines — Taghaza, Taoudenni, Idjil — produced blocks of salt transported by camel to salt-poor West Africa. Salt was traded weight for weight with gold. This is not a metaphor. Block of salt for portion of gold, balanced on the scale. The transaction sounds absurd until you consider that you can live without gold but you cannot live without salt, and then it sounds like the most rational trade in history.
Enslaved people moved in both directions. The trans-Saharan slave trade transported millions over its 1,500-year history — a fact that is less well known than the Atlantic slave trade but no less significant. The Gnawa of Morocco are descendants of this crossing. Their music carries the memory of it.
The caravans declined in the 19th century as European maritime trade bypassed the desert. Steamships were faster. But the routes are still there — marked in the landscape, remembered in the culture, traced by the salt traders who still cross sections of the Sahara with camels loaded with slabs of rock salt. The desert remembers the traffic it carried, even when the traffic has stopped.
The trans-Saharan trade routes connected Morocco to Timbuktu, carrying salt, gold, manuscripts, and enslaved people. The desert remembers.
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The Facts
- —Routes connected Morocco to Timbuktu, Ghana, Mali
- —Salt from Atlas/Mediterranean traded for gold
- —Sijilmasa (Morocco) and Timbuktu: terminus cities
- —Camel caravans: 1,000+ animals
- —Journey: 40-60 days across desert
- —Manuscripts, textiles, enslaved people also traded
- —Declined with Atlantic maritime trade (15th century)
- —Sijilmasa ruins near Rissani still visible
Sources
- Bovill, E.W. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press, 1968
- Levtzion, Nehemia & Hopkins, J.F.P. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cambridge University Press, 1981
- Hunwick, John. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire. Brill, 1999
